Last Wednesday, we went on a fieldtrip to see Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt’s kindergarten classroom at Ecole George Jay Elementary. Rebecca uses an inquiry based approach to learning in her classroom, and has even co-written a book to help teachers incorporate this style of teaching into their classroom. This approach empowers learners and increases engagement in the lessons, because it involves student driven learning. She also follows Reggio Emilia style practices and includes First Peoples Principles of Learning when teaching.  Reggio Emilia is student centered and constructivist, meaning learning happens/is constructed from both the student’s prior and current knowledge and experiences. This year, this kids as a whole, have a huge interest in dinosaurs, so the lessons being taught include as much use of dinosaurs as is possible. This helps develop interest in certain subject areas that otherwise might not carry as much interest for the children. She has also set up her classroom in a way that allows for the children to learn in ways that encourage the children to move around and explore the classroom and not have to sit at a desk all day. For example the kids can use clipboards to write on, which helps them write while sitting or stretching out on the carpet instead of sitting at a desk. There are multiple “stations” set up throughout the classroom which supports both learning and play. Although everything I have seen and learned about all of her approaches to teaching and learning appear very sound, I’m not entirely sure how I would go about incorporating all of this into my future classroom. It feels like there is so much learning, organizing and collecting of materials to be done in order to achieve a classroom environment like hers that it is a bit overwhelming from where I sit. I think, what I need to do is maybe attend a few workshops or take courses that explain these approaches in depth so I can better understand what and how to use these ideas for the betterment of my future students.

https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/instructional-samples/first-peoples-principles-learning

https://www.teachstarter.com/au/blog/reggio-emilia-approach-classroom/

rebeccabathursthunt.com/inquiry-mindset-book/